Weekly Summary for 4th June

Weekly Summary for 4th June

In class we continued with the letter G which stands for God. We discussed about who God is and how God is our Mother, Father and Best Friend. We talked about what God has done for us. Children enjoyed listening to a poem on ‘All things bright and beautiful’ which discussed God’s creations and gifts to us. Children described God as being in our hearts and everywhere around us and learnt the song, “Krishna Here, Krishna There, Krishna Krishna Everywhere; God is One, God is One, God is one for everyone”. We then expressed our gratitude to God and as a way of thanking Him we performed a puja wherein we showered a Ganesha Moorthi with water and put kum kum, Viboothi, sandalwood paste, akshadha (yellow rice) and flowers on Him. Then we performed the Aarti will bells ringing. In this process children learnt about things used for a puja.

Homework: To complete the colouring sheet and learn the second line of the pledge.

Junior Balavihar:

This week we brainstormed why Lord Rama didn’t have an animal vehicle like the other Gods. We correlated this with Lord Krishna as well. Perhaps because they were avatars (human form, God-like). Having crowned Vibhisana as the king of Lanka and freed Sita from her bondage, our rejoicing Rama group started on the way back to Ayodhya from Lanka. As we passed through the various locations on our return journey, we reminisce what had happened there.

On the battlefield, Ravana’s son Indrajit, in his quest to win the battle, hit Laksmana with arrows in the form of poisonous serpents. Due to this, Laksmana fell unconscious. The vanara sena doctor Jamabavan immediately asked Hanuman to get ajadibooti (herbal medicine plant) from the Himalayas. Hanuman quickly flew to the mountain, but couldn’t identify the exact plant. He kept calm and thought fast, and using his strength to his advantage, picked up and brought back the whole mountain!

We learnt that it is important to be fair and not to cheat in order to win. Also, in difficulty, to keep calm (count to 10 in your head) and think fast and use your strengths for the good.

Homework: To practise all lines of pledge by saying it once to/from way to school. To focus on Hanuman and practise being calm every time we think we are in trouble (just like Hanuman did).

Senior Balavihar/ Junior JCs/ Senior JCs

Today’s discussion focused on the importance of goals and how to achieve them. The children learnt about the cataka bird that waits patiently for rainwater only to quench its thirst and does not settle for any other water or liquid. The salmon lives in ocean water but swims upstream to lay eggs in the freshwater, travelling hundreds of miles sometimes and face obstacles but remain steadfast in their goal of laying eggs. Hence, we learnt that it is important to set the highest goal (of value that you really want to achieve), persevere towards it (requires lot of hard work), be patient and never compromise (not uncommon to give up when things get hard!). The JCs had their own discussion group on what goals they wanted to achieve, what were the obstacles they were likely to encounter and how to overcome them. They realised that when you are clear about WHY you want to achieve something, the HOW and WHAT to do becomes easier to figure out. All the children also reflected on some of Thomas Edison’s quotes such as: “There is no substitute for hard work. “

“What you are will show in what you do!”

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

“I have not failed, I have only found 10,000 ways that won’t work!”.

Homework: To revise and reflect on how to set and achieve our goals in life.

Adults:

This week we studied Verses 26 and 27 of Chapter 10. Again the Lord continues to extol his glories and his pre-eminence among all earthly forms. A total of 75 forms is discussed in chapter 10 as examples for Arjuna. Ultimately it is understood that all forms are folded or merged into the Infinite. In verse 27 the story of the churning of the nectar was discussed. This story symbolises the slow and constant strive required to purify the mind and tune to the Higher.